SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2010
KLMNO
EZ SU POLITICS & NATION
Immigration backlog stirs move to release some U.S. detainees
BY SHANKAR VEDANTAM The Obama administration is moving
to release thousands of illegal immi- grants detained at facilities across the country if the immigrants have a poten- tial path to legal residency. The move could affect as many as
17,000 immigrants who entered the country illegally or overstayed their vi- sas, according to Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement officials. It comes amid a push by ICE to focus on illegal immigrantswhohave committed crimes, rather than seek to deport all illegal immigrants. Officials say that the shift is needed to reduce massive clogs in the nation’s immigration courts — where detainees wait for months or years before their cases are decided — and to use deportation as a tool for public safety. “ICE is dedicating unprecedented re-
sources to the removal of criminal aliens,” saidRichardRocha, deputy press secretary at the immigration enforce- ment agency. “The focus now is clearly on criminal aliens. . . .Wewant to ensure convicted criminal aliens are not only removed from the community, but from the country as well.” Rocha said that the deportation of
criminals accounts for about half of all removals, an all-time high. If the immi- grants released under the new policy have their applications for legalization turned down, ICE will resume removal proceedings. While immigration advocates ap-
plauded the move and said it reflected a more humane approach to illegal immi- grants in detention,Republican lawmak- ers and groups that favor stricter limits on immigration denounced it as a form of back-door amnesty. The number of immigrants being de-
tained in the United States has doubled in the last decade, to 369,000 annually. There are now about 248,000 cases awaiting review in backlogged immigra- tion courts, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syra-
cuse University, which tracks immigra- tion statistics. The increases have triggered huge
logistical problems and exposed succes- sive administrations to charges that those who are in the country illegally, a violation of civil statutes, are being exposed to unnecessarily harsh condi- tions. Simultaneously, ICE officials main-
tain, clogged immigration courts divert officials fromidentifying, tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes and other offenses. Inamemo datedAug. 20, ICEDirector
John Morton wrote that as many as 17,000 illegal immigrants have pending applications for legal statuswith theU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, ICE’s sister agency within the Depart- ment ofHomeland Security. As those applications are being re-
viewed, immigrants in detentionwho do not have criminal backgroundsmight be eligible for release, Morton said. Local ICE officials have discretion in releasing detainees, he added, andwould take into consideration a number of factors, in- cluding “national security and public safety.” Mark Krikorian, executive director of
the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter controls on im- migration, warned that the move would demoralize agents working for ICE and also send the wrong message about illegal immigration. Krikorian acknowledged that the gov-
ernment has to set immigration enforce- ment priorities, but said the shortfall in resources stems partly from the Obama administration’s not seeking sufficient means to expedite the review of cases and the deportation of detainees. “Simply letting themgo sends a harm-
ful message to immigration agents and to illegal immigrants,” he said. Agents feel “their work is not valued. The message sent to the illegals is that even if you are put into deportation proceed- ings, we will let you go.”
vedantams@washpost.com
JEROME A. POLLOS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Radley Griggs, 2, plays outside his parents’ livestock trailer Friday at theNorth Idaho Fair and Rodeo in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. NEWJERSEY
MISSISSIPPI
Schools chief fired over costly error on form New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R)
fired his education commissioner Friday, days after it was revealed that a simple mistake on an application form might have cost the state a $400 million education grant. The dismissal of Commissioner Bret
Schundler comes after New Jersey be- came the top runner-up for the Race to the Top grants,missing out by only a few points. The Star-Ledger of Newark re- ported that budget figures for the wrong yearswere supplied in one section of the application. Christie had defended Schundler on
Wednesday and blamed the U.S. Educa- tion Department for considering form over substance. Christie said this week that Schundler gave the federal govern- ment the missing information during a meeting inWashingtonthismonth.But a video released Thursday by the federal Education Department shows that wasn’t the case.
—Associated Press Plea in Obama records-viewing case:
School eliminates race-based election policy A policy designed to achieve racial
equality at anorthMississippi schoolhas long meant that only white students could run for some class offices one year, black students the next. But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed-race children, was stunned when she moved to the area fromFlorida and learned that her 12-year-old daughter couldn’t run for class reporter because she was not the prescribed race. The rules sparked an outcry on Inter-
net blogs and Web sites after Springer contacted an advocacy group for mixed- race families. The NAACP called for a Justice Department investigation, and the district scrapped the policy Friday. Superintendent Russell Taylor posted
a statement on the school’s Web site, saying the policy had been in place for 30 years, dating to a time when school districts across Mississippi came under scrutiny over desegregation. —Associated Press
DIGEST
A3
Anne Rhodes and Lisa Torney, who were among nine people accused of illegally viewing President Obama’s student re- cords, have pleaded guilty. Both face up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine whenthey are sentencedonDec. 13.They were among nine former employees of a U.S. Department of Education contrac- tor in Iowa. All but one defendant has pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. Hoarder found dead in home: A
four-month search for a missing Las Vegas woman came to a ghastly end this week when Bill James found the corpse of his poack-ratwife, Billie Jean, in their home amid a labyrinth of squalor that had been impassable even to search dogs. Illegal immigrants charged in Mid-
western roundup: Federal officials an- nounced Friday that they had arrested 370 immigrants who were in the United States illegally or had been convicted of other crimes as part of a three-day roundup in the Midwest. The immi- grants arrested were from more than 50 countries, and some had been convicted of crimes involving drugs and sexual offenses.
—Fromnews services
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